The Odds eBook

“It’s my own fault,” he said presently.
“I’ve chucked away my life to the gold-demon.
And now there is nothing left to me. You were
wise in your generation. You may thank your stars,
Perry, that when I wanted you to join me, you had
the sense to refuse. When I heard you were married
I called you a fool. But—­I know better
now.”

He paused. He had been speaking with a force
that was almost passionate. When he continued
his tone had changed.

“That is why you find me a trifle less surly
than I used to be,” he said. “I used
to hate my fellow-creatures. And now I would give
all my money in exchange for a few disinterested friends.
I’m sick of my lonely life. But for all
that, I shall live and die alone.”

“You make too much of it,” said Clinton.

“Perhaps. But you can’t expect a
man who has been into Paradise to be exactly happy
when he is thrust outside.”

Clinton took up the evening paper without comment.
Merefleet had never before spoken so openly to him.
He realised that the man’s loneliness must oppress
him heavily indeed thus to master his reserve.

“What news?” said Merefleet, after a pause.

“Nothing,” said Clinton. “Plague
on the Continent. Railway mishap on the Great
Northern. Another American Disaster.”

“What’s that?” said Merefleet with
a touch of interest.

“Electric car accident. Ralph Warrender
among the victims.”

“Warrender! What! Is he dead?”

“Yes. Killed instantaneously. Did
you know him?”

“I have met him in business. I wasn’t
intimate with him.”

“Isn’t he the man whose first wife was
killed in a railway accident?” said Clinton
reflectively, glad to have diverted Merefleet’s
thoughts. “I thought so. I met her
once and was so smitten with her that I purchased
her portrait forthwith. The most marvellous woman’s
face I ever saw. The man I got it from spoke
of her with the most appalling enthusiasm. ’Mab
Warrender!’ he said. ’If she is not
the loveliest woman in U.S., I guess the next one
would strike us blind.’ Here! I’ll
show it you. Netta wants me to frame it.”

Clinton got up and took a book from a cupboard.
Merefleet was watching him with strained eyes.
His heart was thumping as if it would choke him.
He rose as Clinton laid the picture before him, and
steadied himself unconsciously by his friend’s
shoulder.